The Iroha Diaries: One Year of Writing It Down
by SaranWrappedDaughter
Summary: Iroha's guidance counselor suggests she write in a diary to ward off the stress the new school is causing her. While juggling the concerns of her sister, girl troubles, and an embarrassing skin condition, how will her year go? Title and Rating may change.
1. Prologue: The Idea

**Prologue – Counseling**

Iroha opened the door to the guidance counselor's office. The guidance counselor, also known as her older sister and motherly figure, Luka. "Good morning, Iroha." She swiveled around in the dark leather chair and gestured to the fluffy couch on the opposite wall.

Iroha dropped her bag and plopped down onto the seat, smoothing out her black skirt. "I asked you to come up here for a reason, dear. Do you know why?"

The younger sister shrugged and looked out the window. "Please, tell me, Iroha." Luka sighed, picking up her glasses and wiping them with the sleeve of her black jacket. "No." Iroha finally said. "I don't know."

Luka smiled sadly. "That's exactly the problem, Iroha. Ever since we moved here, you haven't done anything. You haven't talked to anybody new, you haven't started any sports. I know that grades are important when moving to a new school, but you have to consider what life will be like without any friends."

Iroha shrugged. "Nobody would want to talk to me. You haven't been in high school for a while, Luka." She sighed. "Everybody meets up with their new friends and they group off, leaving a few extra clusters here and there."

"Okay," Luka sighed, adjusting her glasses on her nose. "Well than what cluster to you belong to?" Iroha looked at her black shoes. "I'm not in a cluster. I'm a free-rider." The guidance counselor tapped her chin. "Have you ever considered trying out for anything? Cheerleading? Volleyball? I know you loved sports when you went to middle school."

"Everything is different. I don't know anybody here. I've got too much on my plate. You don't understand – Meiko came with us. She's your friend. We left all my friends back home." Luka nodded and quickly sketched some things in Iroha's page in the student binder. "I see. Too much on your plate, you say? Well, do you feel like you need to get somethings off your chest?"

Iroha nodded shyly. "Yeah. But there's nobody to talk to here, you know?" Luka smiled and closed the binder.

"Well, sis, I think I have the perfect solution." She opened one of her cabinets to a space full of somewhat-thick black books. They were almost similar to composition notebooks, the kind she used in Science, only they were small in size and thicker in pages. Luka took one out and rolled it over in her hands.

"Iroha, I want you to write in this book everyday. It's a diary, tell it all your secrets." The student took her sister's book and cringed. "Luka, that's not what people do anymore. _Nobody _writes in diaries anymore."

"Except for you." Luka folded her arms. "I won't make you show me what you've written, as long as you tell me the truth – write in it. It may help you somehow." At that moment, the class bell rang and signaled the end of the day.

"I suppose you can start your entries tomorrow. I'll meet you near the front door in about ten minutes."


	2. Entry 1: Just A Little Background

Dear Diary,

I'm new to this. A lot of things, actually. School, not only high school but this school itself. I guess I should be privileged to get in this school, but I feel like an outcast. I went to public school all my life too, so I'm not exactly used to the uniforms and whatnot.

My older sister, Luka Megurine, told me I should write in here. Since she's the schools guidance counselor and she lives with me, I actually have to listen to her or else she drills me about it here at home. So I guess I'm stuck on writing in this big book for the whole rest of the year.

Oh, I guess I should explain myself. My name is Iroha. Iroha Nekomura, actually. You may be thinking, although, I suppose you can't think, can you diary? Anyway, you might be thinking "If Luka is your sister, why don't you have the same last name?". Luka told me that she took Mom's last name while I kept our father's.

That brings up another question: Where are our parents? I dn't know. I can't remember them at all. Most of my childhood is a blur up through the fifth grade, when I started meeting new friends at my old school. At that time, Luka was around 18, give or take a year. She became my legal guardian, and the rest is history.

My sister went to school and became a counselor. However, she was offered a job here at the private school, which offers a _lot _of money. So she obviously took this job and moved. We live in a lovely apartment, much larger than the one we lived in previously. The view from the windows is wonderful!

I don't live just with my sister, though. My sister's best friend, Meiko, also moved here with us. During the day, Luka and I go to school and Meiko hangs out around the house and sometimes cleans. At night, she goes to work while Luka and I do paperwork or homework. It's a system we can handle, though. On the weekends, Luka and Meiko go out and come back early in the morning, so sometimes I'm left in charge. Meiko's crazy, and that counters Luka's stoicism. Is that the right word for her?

What else can I tell you about...? Oh! When I joined the school, I bumped into a nice girl. Her name was Miki, and she was very kind to me. We only have three classes together, unfortunately. And I'm too scared to talk to her, honestly, she just seems too popular and I wouldn't want to ruin that.

Luckily, the teachers haven't noticed my habit of wearing gloves. The nurse knows, and I really hope she hasn't told anybody. Diary, my hands are gross. I have a skin condition, Eczema. I have a special type of eczema called Dyshidrosis. My hands, especially around my fingernails, are covered in ugly bumps. I hate it. But we have to live with it, so I wear gloves all the time. If any of my classmates knew, I might just die.

Meiko is about to leave – so I think I'll stop writing for today. This is okay, now that I've written everything down on paper I feel a little bit less worried. A little. Maybe this won't be so bad!

'Till Tommorow,

Iroha


	3. Entry 2: Uneventful

Dear Diary,

It's going to be challenging to write in this everyday, diary. I can already tell. Luka says I have to write at least a full page of what happened today – how will I manage that on extremely boring days? I wouldn't want to lie to Luka, she can see through me like a window.

I think I'll just tell you a little bit about my classes. My first class of the day starts at 7:45 in the morning, and it's English 9. I don't know many people in the class, but I know Miki is in it! She sits across the room, but I occasionally see her wave and whatnot. The teacher is Mrs. Eng, which is funny, since she teaches English. On my schedule it mentions her first name is Anne. And her husband is in the building too. We'll get to him later.

But during English, I caught a few kids sniggering at my accent. I have a tiny one, nothing really noticeable (or so I thought). Sometimes my "t"s turn into "d"s and if I go to say "this" I say "sis". But I never actually realized it was funny – private school are so confusing.

Depending on the day, I have two classes at second period. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I have Health class with Mr. Krass, pronounced 'Cross' mind you. He dyes his hair very often, or so I've heard. One week he may have slicked back black hair, and the next he has bright blonde hair. His mood changes with his hair color too, it seems.

On Tuesday and Thursday, I have Mixed Choir. It's definitely my favorite class, by far! Miki is in that one too – so are a bunch of people. It's called Mixed Choir for a reason, all us ladies and gentlemen pushed together into the music room. I guess Luka imagines my best bet is to find friends there, but I don't know just yet. Our choir director is a bit weird – she makes us call her by her stage name, Sonika. She told us a story on the first day of class about how people don't seem to like her much because of her voice and image, but I respect that. It almost reminded me of myself and my unhealthy obsession over Hello Kitty! brand items.

Third period I have Science 9 HA, or high ability. Our teacher is a woman named Miriam Banks, or Ms. Banks. She's pretty nice, if not a little bit more sharp-tongued. She has such light blonde hair I once mistook it for gray!

Fourth period I have Lunch, I sit at the corner table and usually pick at my food. The cafeteria has a beautiful view of the city, though! It's made practically of steel bars and glass windows – almost like a complex fishbowl, which coined the term "The Fishbowl" for the lunchroom. Halfway thorugh the period, the bell rings and we're switched into a lunch study hall for about 20 or so minutes.

This semester for fifth period I have cooking with a man named Kaito Shion. Although, I think he took the job for the sole purpose of eating our food! He also has a love for cold desserts – I realized that when I opened the fridge to get some milk and found hundreds of Haagen-Daaz containers instead.

Next semester for fifth period I'll have Art 1 with Ms. Krass, again pronounced "Cross". Her older brother is Mr. Krass, who teaches Health. She's a finicky woman, and she's also one of the female athletic coaches. She doesn't really teach us to draw, she leave sour styles to us, but she tells us what to do and teaches us about certain artists.

Sixth period is Algebra 1 with Mr. Hiyama. He reminds me of a more serious Mr. Shion. He gets easily frustrated, so in that class I've taken to keeping my head buried in my notetaking so he won't call on me.

Seventh period is European History. I'm not really a history buff, but I can tell Mr. Eng has fun with it. Oh, yeah, Mr. Eng is Mrs. Eng's husband obviously. He's got a deeper voice than me, which is probably hard to believe, but it's true! He also has a strange love of penguins. Hearing that from a grown man is always funny, especially when it's true.

Finally, I have Eighth period. I have to take a foreign language, as though it wasn't hard enough to cope with my deep voice and sometimes-slurring 'accent'. So I chose Chinese, thinking it was similar to Japanese. I, surprisingly like a few of my other classmates, actually know fluent Japanese. So in Chinese, everyone is somewhat prepared for the worst. Miki is in this class too – I might add. But the Chinese teacher hasn't arrived in our city yet, so right now Sonika teaches because she's fluent in practically every language.

This entry is taking up almost two pages. That's really long, isn't it? For just me explaining my schedule, that is. So maybe I'll just fill up the page with more about myself.

I said earlier that I like Hello Kitty brand items. I know I should grow out of it by now, trust me, I know. But It's just always stuck with me. The only people who know are Luka and Meiko, since they see my room on a daily basis along with all my clothes and knick knacks.

My room. It's fairly sized, smaller than Meiko's and Luka's rooms, but bigger than my old room. The walls are painted a light rose color and the dresser and bed posts are made of a nice dark, shiny wood. My bedspread is a slightly darker red color with the Hello Kitty logo on it. My closet is made of the same dark wood as my dresser and is filled with all my weekend clothes and two spare uniforms. The uniforms are a black jacket with my last name printed on the breast, a white blouse, a black skirt, and black flats of some kind. I was a little depressed to hear that my uniform wouldn't be pink or red or green, but I made do.

I honestly think that's all you need to know about. You probably won't care about what Meiko or Luka's rooms look like, or what any other room in the house looks like unless it comes up in another entry. I don't like any boys at school, Luka's asked me already, believe me! My only friend is Miki, if you can call her a friend, since I never see her. Finally, nobody has noticed my hands yet. The teachers possibly know, but they haven't said anything – which is good.

Oh, I've signed up for Cross Country. You know, the sport where you just keep running and it doesn't really matter how fast you are – but on the distance? Yeah, that's the one. I've never actually been on the cross country team before, all I know is that everyone gets on the team, which is a relief. I won't have to worry about rejection. Practice doesn't start for a few weeks but I'm thinking about practicing every morning before school. Nothing better to do anyway, I don't have any real friends over anyway...

It's that time again, diary. I just heard the door shut, so Meiko has left. I've been in this room for how long? An hour? Probably not, but it feels like that. I'm almost done with the page, so I guess I'll end this entry now.

Wish Me Luck,

Iroha


	4. Entry 3: Of Lillies and Rinnies?

Dear Diary,

So today, Luka told me I don't have to write in you everyday! Just whenever I need to get something off my chest or to tell about the day's events. So I figured I'll write you something today before the weekend starts!

The school decided some of us freshmen should have senior 'buddies' who basically help us around here and there, almost like a "big brother"-type program. As they were all being brought together with their new senior friends, I was almost excited about who I got.

_Until I met her._

Her name is Lily, and I can already tell she's a troublemaker. Instead of wearing her jacket closed and her skirt knee length and her black shoes small, she wears her coat open, her skirt is extremely short, and she wears black leather books higher than her _knees_. I'm not sure whether she's supposed to be _my _buddy, or if I'm supposed to be _her_ role model.

We had the whole of third period to talk to our new buddies. So Lily and I sat in the back corner of the classroom and she twirled a beaker around between her fingers for half of the time. "Sooo..." She finally said at some point, dropping the beaker to the counter top. "Have you met my little sibs?"

"Your _what_?" I remember asking, and she seemed fairly amused. "Siblings. Brother, sister. About yay high." She gestured with her hand. I nodded. "I think I have choir with them. And you." Lily nodded. "Yeah, my little Rinny and Lenny. They're cute, but personally I like Rin more." She bumped shoulders with me and smiled.

"Speaking of sibs, you got any? Brothers, sisters, hermaphrodites?" I shrugged. "My older sister, Luka. She's the guidance counselor." Lily sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Cool. I guess. This is awkward." I looked at my shoes for a full five minutes before speaking up. "So, are you in any sports?" Lily shrugged back. "Meh. Sports are a joke. I'm doing basketball later, though."

When that bell rang a minute later, she bolted faster than I'd ever seen anybody run I swear she broke the speed of light. And I didn't see her again all day.

Oh, and somebody else started talking to me today. During fifth period, Mr. Shion annmounced we were splitting into partners. So I stuck to my seat and waited until I was alone, but instead of that someone _actually came over and sat with me_.

The name stitched onto her jacket was "Hatsune" and she's a junior. She has such pretty, long hair, always done up in twintails. I've heard she's possibly the most popular girl in all the schools – even the kindergarteners know her. She volunteers and is basically a golden girl, so I was surprised when she strolled over and took a seat next to me and began to play with my hair.

"Hi, freshman." She grinned, taking a long strand of it in her fingers. "My name's Miku, what's yours?" I attempted to look at her. "Iroha." "Iroha?" She smiled. "Like ee-ro-ha? I heard a song from a friend about that!" She grabbed my shoulder like we were best friends and jostle dme while she sang.

"_Iroha nihoheto doko made mo~" _She sung out a full japanese lyric and smiled. "My friend Rin taught me that song, actually. She's in your grade – Oh! - anyway, nice to meet you, Iroha. I think we have Chinese and Choir together, too."

So today wasn't totally boring or a hit-and-miss. I really have to meet this Rin girl – she seems really nice. Especially if she's friends with Miku Hatsune.

I have to stop writing – I'm making dinner tonight.

Someday,

Iroha


End file.
